What corona has taught us

We are in the last days of an eventful year. A year in which the coronavirus has now had an iron grip on our society for three quarters of a year. A year in which communication was characterized as a crucial profession. And a year in which we rediscovered and reinvented ourselves. And that happened with trial and error, also with the Issuemakers.

It is also the time of reflection, looking back and the time of lists. And for once we are participating in that. We asked all Issuemakers what they will remember most about the past year. We have listed these, sometimes personal, observations and would like to share them:

• Time seems to have taken on a new dimension: no travel time, no full trains and trams, no traffic jams. So more effective working time. The balance between work and private life was sometimes a bit lost, but it also created a lot of peace. We have all learned to reorganize our time. No one feels bad about doing one or two loads of laundry during the working day, paying attention to the children or getting the groceries. And the rat race at the end of the day or week also seems to be experienced differently.
• Health of body and mind has received a boost. Of course, work continued, but we all took more time to exercise (cycling, running and walking were mentioned most often). Often with friends, sometimes alone or with fellow Issuemakers. Instead of sitting opposite each other in an office, we meet outside in nature much more often.
• Attention for ourselves and others. Family, relatives, friends and colleagues climbed the attention ladder. Spontaneous and planned and both offline and online, when necessary.
• There was more time and energy for it creativityt; some Issuemakers have taken up drawing and painting or used the time to learn a new language. And we have also used our creativity at work in a new, perhaps much more effective way. Increasingly with the help of digital resources such as MURAL and MIRO
• Place and space changed: our newly furnished office was used in a different way and was increasingly exchanged for a home environment. For some of us that was a blessing in disguise, for others the walls and screen sometimes literally came at them. You can only appreciate silence when you also experience chaos and hectic up close.

We learned a lot. For the short term and perhaps also for the longer term. A different way of working seems to be becoming the new reality. We are curious about how you deal with this and would like to listen to good ideas to make this new reality even better.